Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

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I had a chance to hear a bit more of the interview Larry Michael conducted with Mike Shanahan at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis; it’s long and wide-ranging, and there’s a lot of good stuff there. You’ll be able to see more of it on Redskins.com on Friday — here’s part 1 — and Redskins Nation on Comcast SportsNet next week, and I’ll have a a few more excerpts as well, but here’s one thing that jumped out at me right away: Shanahan confirmed that he had finally had that long-awaited meeting with Donovan McNabb’s agent Fletcher Smith.

Shanahan didn’t reveal much beyond that. “I did talk to Fletcher Smith yesterday,” he said, after Michael asked him about the latest developments in the McNabb situation. “Had a great conversation with him. And, you know, I can’t go through the details, but it’s been talked about, and we’ll let the process take care of itself.”

This marks another bit of progress in the Continuing Saga Of Donovan McNabb — the last time we heard from McNabb himself, he said, “I think for Fletcher Smith as well as Bruce [Allen] and Mike, they’ll get a chance to sit down and iron some things out and after the evaluation — they’ve been evaluating the last couple of weeks — we’ll hear what their answer is of what we’re doing next and then we’ll go from there.”

Now we know that the sit-down has taken place. We know that it was “a great conversation”. Hopefully soon we’ll get to the parts where hear what the answer is, what we’re doing next, and where we’re going from there. But it’s good to know that these early steps have taken place.

For more of Larry Michael’s interview with Mike Shanahan, see Redskins.com on Friday (here’s part 1), Redskins Nation on Comcast SportsNet next week, and here as well, for more exciting transcription.Read more »

Speaking to Comcast SportsNet’s Kelli Johnson after practice today, though, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan rebutted a good deal of the Smith statement very specifically, and in no uncertain terms.

“When I heard that last night, it definitely was a little disturbing,” Kyle Shanahan said. “Anytime you work with someone every day like I do with Donovan — we’ve been together for about seven months at least, we’re around each other all the time — and never once have a confrontation; you eat together every day, nothing ever’s been bad … to hear stuff like I heard, that was a little surprising. So of course it bothered me.”

Upon hearing about the statement, Kyle Shanahan called McNabb to ensure that the two could sit down and discuss things in person. And what the player told his coordinator was just a little bit different from what the player’s agent said publicly.

“When I talked to Donovan,” Shanahan said, “and he says that he didn’t say any of that, I’m like, ‘Well, yeah, your agent did, which to me is you.’ And he said he didn’t agree with any of that; those words didn’t come out of his mouth; he didn’t tell his agent that stuff. So … all I can go off is what Donovan tells me. We’ve never had a confrontation all year. Never had an argument. Everything’s been good. So it is kinda … really a different situation to hear that stuff, but when I clear it up with him, I’ve gotta go with the reality of what the two guys it’s between talk about.”

Just for fun, here are a few excerpts from Smith’s statement, contrasted with Kyle Shanahan’s comments to CSN:

Donovan McNabb‘s agent Fletcher Smith released a statement today, ostensibly to “clarify some misinterpretations”. For purposes of this statement, clarifying misinterpretations seemed to be pretty much synonymous with “expressing his frustration with Mike and especially Kyle Shanahan”. If that paraphrase doesn’t sum everything up to your satisfaction, you can read the entire statement over at CSNWashington.com.

This evening, Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan issued this response:

“As I stated earlier, when I traded for Donovan McNabb I had hoped that he would lead us to the playoffs. No one wanted him to be more successful than me. When the team was 5-8 and mathematically out of the playoffs, I made the decision to evaluate our other two quarterbacks. This was not personal, but strictly professional. The decision was made in the best interest of the Washington Redskins and I stand by my decision. I will attempt to talk to Fletcher Smith directly to clear up every one of his misconceptions.”

I’m sure we’ll have plenty more about this tomorrow. Ah, Christmas Eve at Redskins Park.